Pole-ish

It's a Kraków Special on Pole-ish as we welcome David McGirr - Scottish photographer, founder of Kraków Expats Directory, creator of Kraków TV, and one of the city's official Ambassadors of Multiculturalism. David explains what first drew him to Kraków, why he chose to stay, and how he's helped thousands of newcomers discover the city. We talk hidden gems, favourite neighbourhoods, expat life, lea...

No guest this week - just Peter and John, armed with microphones, questionable opinions and 21 increasingly random questions. In this special guest-free edition of Pole-ish, the hosts turn the spotlight on themselves. They tackle everything from beaches vs. mountains, Warsaw vs. Kraków, and Żabka vs. Biedronka, before John reveals his own answers to the Five Big Questions usually reserved for gues...

Football, history, bureaucracy, seafood, bicycles and a lot of affection for Poland - it can only be Pole-ish! In this episode, Peter and John welcome Mike Giammattei , an American former Army Reservist who came to Poland on deployment, met the woman who would become his wife, and ended up building a life in Gniezno, Poland's historic first capital. Along the way, Mike shares his experiences of br...

In Episode 19 of Pole-ish, we ask what makes someone leave Britain behind to build a new life in Poland. Communications consultant Tom Lane swapped the drizzle of West Midlands for the sunlit uplands of Poznań after falling in love during the Covid years. He shares the story of moving to Poland, navigating the post-Brexit maze of paperwork, getting married across two countries, and launching his o...

For Episode 18 of Pole-ish, we’re joined by internationally minded Polish career coach, recruitment expert and intercultural communication specialist Lucy Bolin. After living in six countries across Europe and North America - including the US, UK, Germany, Spain and France - Lucy shares what two decades abroad taught her about identity, ambition, language, belonging and the emotional reality of ex...

In Episode 17 of Pole-ish podcast, Peter and John are joined by Nigerian-born content creator Raphael Obi, whose hilarious and sharply observed videos about life in Poland have built a huge online following. Raphael talks about why he moved from Nigeria to Warsaw, the culture shocks of arriving in Poland, learning the Polish language (or attempting to), and what it’s like being a Black foreigner i...

We boldly go where no podcast has gone before... well, at least no podcast which also features ptasie mleczko, pétanque and the coconut song. Our special guest is Dr Tomasz Zajkowski - President of the Polish Astrobiology Society, and researcher at AGH University’s new Faculty of Space Technologies in Kraków. Tomasz talks to us about the search for extraterrestrial life, whether we might all secre...

In Episode 15 of Pole-ish, Peter and John kick off with Benny Hill’s grammatically and politically incorrect legacy, Warsaw’s striking new Museum of Modern Art, and a wild-animal challenge featuring bison, boar and beavers (naturally). Then they’re joined by British journalist and author Jo Harper for one of their most honest and revealing conversations yet. Jo reflects on arriving in Poland in th...

This week on Pole-ish , Peter and John welcome Oleg Tyshchenko, a Ukrainian developer behind Polish Heritage: Quiz Explorer - an app designed to help people discover Poland through quizzes, recipes, history and culture. Along the way, we get into Polish vs Ukrainian borscht, the truth about pierogi ruskie , why philosophy still matters in tech, and how Polish heritage can survive across borders an...

This week on Pole-ish , we prove once again that you don’t need a wild night out for things to descend into mild chaos. Fresh(-ish) from a wholesome Kraków meetup, we recap an evening that featured cherry liqueur, questionable coordination, zapiekanka incidents, and - because it’s Poland in April - a surprise midnight snowfall. Rock and roll. There’s also a global reality check as we discover our...

Our two Pole-ish buddies finally record an episode in the same room. In this very special (and somewhat disorganised) episode, Peter & John record together in Kraków with no script, no plan, but absolutely no shortage of beer. They swap stories of Poland past and present (including propeller planes into a snowy Balice), debate why Kraków might just be the perfect-sized city, and attempt to sep...

Something very different this week with Peter and John taking a well-earned(!) break. What happens to all the bits that don’t make the cut? They come back to life. Think of it as the Pole-ish podcast’s very own monster – slightly unhinged, oddly charming, and impossible to categorise. This week, we bring you a selection of offcuts, bonus content and bloopers that haven’t previously been aired in p...

In this special bonus Thursday episode of Pole-ish , we bring you the second part of our interview with Raf Uzar – yes, that’s him off the wonderful My English Podcast . Today, Raf takes us on a journey across Poland, and down into Slovakia, eating and drinking along the way, as well as going way waaaay back as he regales us with tales from his early days as a young man in Łódz and his extraordina...

In this episode of Pole-ish , we’re joined by Warsaw-based communicator, broadcaster and storyteller Raf Uzar – one of the exquisite voices behind My English Podcast and a passionate observer of Poland’s place in the world. From learning Polish to unpacking cultural differences, communication styles, and Poland’s evolving global image, this conversation dives into what it really means to live betw...

What does it really take to feel at home in a new country? In this episode of Pole-ish , hosts Peter MacLeod and Johnathan Nett explore expat life in Poland through the lens of community, culture, and music. Peter sits down with Luiza Chrzanowska — coach, expat, and founder of Warsaw’s international choir Choir in Action — to discuss how singing brings people together across languages and backgrou...

The podcast for expats and lovers of Poland interviews Palina Piatsiul of The Burman Robinson legal services firm that specialises in all matters of immigration law. In an entertaining and enlightening interview, Palina tells us of the main mistakes incomers make, some of the pitfalls to avoid, and sheds light on what for many is a stressful and oblique application process. Along the way, we hear...

Pole-ish 007: “Poland Sucks” The podcast for expats and lovers of Poland interviews British author and filmmaker Patrck Ney, who says “Poland sucks” at telling the world its story. That’s why a whole generation of non-Poles know so little about Polish history. Patrick gets stuck into topics including parenting, tech use amongst teens, what becoming a Polish citizen means to him, and the secret of...

As the cinema world prepares to crown the latest bunch of Oscar laureates, we delve into Poland’s record at this most glittering of occasions, featuring some magnificent Polish films and filmmakers, and including the excruciating moment a Polish animator was hurried off the stage, and later thrown in jail, Oscar-in-hand, on his big night. Expanding on the cinematic theme, our Pole of the Week is S...

Our guest this week is Salvatore Canzio, author of Ex-pat: Straniero due Volte (Ex-pat: Stranger Twice), in which he charts his life living and working in Warsaw before his return to his hometown in southern Italy. In a deep and revealing chat, Salva talks about his identity and sense of belonging, his redefinition of success, as well as other interesting stuff such as culture shock, language, soc...

John and Peter take to the slopes – and the rinks – as we look at Poland’s record in the Winter Olympics. We take a deep dive into the frozen waters in profiling some of Poland’s winter sport heroes, including our Pole of the Week, Wojciech Fortuna – the man who’s ski jump caught everyone by surprise in 1972. As well as running through some of the nation’s other success on ice and snow, John intro...

Our first guest edition introduces the wonderful David Kennedy to the Pole-ish audience. Listen to Scotsman David’s stories about his early visits to Poland, where he witnessed the shipyard strikes in Gdańsk, his lock-out from a Krakow monastery, and the strong bonds between his homeland and his adopted one. Plus, he plays the part of a guinea pig as he faces the first airing of our ‘Five Big Ques...

John and Peter plunge headfirst into a barrel of Polish traditions and come up for air chatting about pączki , arguably the world’s tastiest doughnuts. In a food-heavy edition, we look at the Polish national sport of grilling sausages , and Peter takes a deep-dive into a bowl of his favourite żurek . Pole of the Week is Maksymilian Faktorowicz, better known as the patron saint of make-up, Max Fact...

Episode 1 sees John and Peter cover a lot of early ground, including a weirdly numbered bus, an extraordinary (female) Polish spy, the weather, cheese on toast Kraków style, and a whole load of other stuff. Please subscribe, like, share and comment, and tell all your friends and colleagues about us. Thank you. -- Read our blog: www. Pole-ish.eu Write to us: peter@pole-ish.com Follow our socials: S...

Welcome to the preview edition of the Pole-ish podcast, launching here on 2nd February 2026 with new episodes every Monday thereafter. Pole-ish is an affectionate, funny and often bemused look at life in Poland from two outsiders who now call it home. Brit Peter MacLeod (Warsaw) and American Johnathan Nett (Kraków) share stories, observations and hard-won wisdom about navigating Polish culture, bu...